Argentine Army

The Argentine Army is the army of Argentina, founded on 29 May 1810. The army was founded four days after the Spanish colonial administration in Buenos Aires was overthrown during the South American Wars of Liberation, and the new national army was formed from pre-existent colonial militias and locally manned regiments. During the first half of the 19th century, the army was fractionalized under the leadership of caudillo warlords, but it was reunited during the Cisplatine War with Brazil from 1824 to 1827. After 1930, the Army began to play a major role in politics, starting with the deposition of President Hipolito Yrigoyen in 1930 and continuing with the 1943 Argentine coup d'etat, which brought Juan Peron into the limelight. In 1955, the army overthrew Peron, and it ousted Arturo Frondizi in 1962 and Arturo Illia in 1966. From 1966 to 1973, another military junta ruled Argentina. In 1973, Juan Peron returned to power, and his widow Isabel Peron led the country from 1974 until her deposition in a coup in 1976. During the 1970s, the Army committed grave war crimes during the suppression of the Montoneros and other left-wing Peronist and communist insurgent groups during the "Dirty War". In 1982, the Army occupied the Falkland Islands, but it was defeated by the British in the ensuing Falklands War. The defeat in the war led to a return to civilian rule in 1983, and the Army was reduced both in number and budget.